Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr.

September 10, 2019 (El Cajon) -- A Muslim group is pushing for the House to formally investigate and censure San Diego Representative Duncan Hunter for alleged war crimes. On Monday, Sept. 9, they delivered a petition with 8,000 signatures to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Republicans Bill Wells and Carl DeMaio voice intent to challenge Hunter; others silent on whether they will run if Hunter is on the ballot

By Miriam Raftery

Photo courtesy Times of San Diego

August 14, 2019 (San Diego) – Judge Thomas Whelan has ruled that Congressman Duncan Hunter’s federal corruption trial will be postponed until January 14th. That’s after the Dec. 6 deadline for candidates to run for the seat, posing a dilemma for some Republican candidates who have said they would not run if Hunter is still in the race. If the trial extends into February, voters could be casting early vote-by-mail ballots without knowing if Hunter has been found guilty or not.

August 6, 2019 (San Diego) – Federal prosecutors have filed a request in U.S. District Court asking to postpone the sentencing date for Margaret Hunter until December 2, after the trial of her husband, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

August 5, 2019 (San Diego) – Former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio is the latest Republican to announce plans to run for the 50th Congressional district seat currently held by indicted Congressman Duncan D. Hunter.

July 18, 2019 (San Diego) – The U.S. Marine Corps has sent a letterordering Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) to cease and desist using the official Marines emblem and slogan on any campaign materials.

The demand comes after Hunter sent a misleading and Islamophobic mailer to smear his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is Catholic.

Photo: Gregory A. Vega of downtown San Diego’s Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek law firm came to the defense of his old friend Gonzalo Curiel when the federal judge came under attack from Donald Trump. Image via YouTube.com

July 9, 2019 (San Diego) - At Monday’s hour-long hearing forRep. Duncan D. Hunter,22 minutes were devoted to whether two (or possibly three) assistant U.S. attorneys had a political ax to grind against the indicted Republican.

Photo by Chris Stone, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

July 8, 2019 (San Diego) – U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan has rejected a trio of requests sought by Congressman Duncan Hunter’s legal team, City News Service reports.

Hunter’s lawyers argued that all 60 federal corruption charges should be dismissed or that two prosecutor should be removed because they once attended a presidential campaign event for Hillary Clinton in 2015. The U.S. Attorney’s office said the prosecutors attended the event in their official capacity to help law enforcement. Whelen ruled that prosecutors had sufficient probable cause to prosecute Hunter regardless of the reasons why prosecutors attended the function.

Update July 9: This photo has been deleted off Hunter's social media. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Hunter spokesman Michael Harrison stated, “Congressman Hunter has never supported or been accused of supporting white supremacy and if anyone were to espouse any such beliefs in a photo with Congressman Hunter they did so without his knowledge or consent,” Harrison said in an email. “To be clear, Congressman Hunter does not personally know this individual, or what his views may be.”

Updated July 7 with information on identity of the man standing next to Hunter: Kristopher Wyrick, founder of an avowed white nationalist organization. Updated July 8 with statement from Ammar Campa-Najjar.

By Miriam Raftery

July 6, 2019 (Alpine) – A photo making the rounds on social media claims Congressman Duncan D Hunter spent the Fourth of July in the company of white nationalists. A photo shows Hunter standing next to a man flashing a hand signal that’s commonly used as a white powersymbolas well as A-okay sign. The image was cropped down from a group photo taken in Alpine, where Rep. Hunter participated in the town’s annual 4th of July Independence Day Parade.

However, the man in the photo has an apparent history of participating in and leading groups that espouse white nationalist positions and of violence against protesters as shown in videos.

According to a Times of San Diego report published July 7, the man flashing the white power sign is believed to be Kristopher Wyrick, a cofounder of the Bordertown Patriots, a white nationalist group that organized an event at Chicano Park that reportedly resulted in clashes with counterprotesters and multiple arrests. Wyrick is also reportedly a former member of San Diego Proud Boys and the United Patriot National Front. Will Johnson, who has had two court battles with Wyrick, told Times of San Diego that he's certain it's Wyrick in the photo because "I've seen him so many times." Johnson sought a restraining order against Wyrick but lost; Wyrick later won a small claims court against Johnson over lost work time and gun storage costs.

Photo: Activists have announced a rally Monday morning calling on Rep. Hunter to resign

June 29, 2019 (San Diego) – Congressman Duncan D. Hunter’s legal team has filed a motion asking a federal court in San Diego to deny the prosecution’s motion which seeks to admit evidence that Hunter’s alleged misuse of campaign funds included money spent on five extramarital affairs.

Update: Hunter's attorneys have filed a motion seeking to suppress the evidence of the affairs, claiming it would be prejudicial to a jury. Read details. A judge later denied the motion and ruled that evidence of alleged affairs can be entered as evidence.

June 28, 2019 (Washington D.C.) – After federal prosecutors revealed evidence Monday alleging that in Rep. Duncan Hunter illegally spent campaign funds on romantic affairs with five women, including three lobbyists, a major government watchdog group today raises questions over a potentially deeper scandal.

June 25, 2019 (San Diego) - Rep. Duncan D. Hunter carried on “romances” with five women starting as early as April 2009 using campaign funds to pay for trysts, prosecutors wrote Monday in a motion devastating in detail.

June 25, 2019 (San Diego) - Rep. Duncan D. Hunter has long accused theSan Diego U.S. Attorney's Officeof being out to get him for political reasons. Now his lawyers are hoping a motion filed Monday proves it.

June 17, 2019 (San Diego) – Congressman Duncan D. Hunter’s trial on 60 counts of federal corruption charges is scheduled for September. He has pleaded not guilty. However, last week his wife, wife, Margaret, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and is now cooperating with prosecutors. Court documents reveal that she has implicated Rep. Hunter in serious crimes and affirmed that the campaign treasurer told the Hunters that their actions were illegal, but his advice was ignored. Hunter is accused of spending $250,000 of campaign funds for personal use and falsifying federal campaign finance filings to cover up the thefts.

If Congressman Hunter is convicted and either resigns or is expelled by the House of Representatives, a vacancy would be declared and a special election could be called. When or if that could occur, however, depends on several factors.

A version of this story is reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Network; updated to add statement from Ammar Campa-Najjar, Hunter's opponent in the 50th Congressional District race, and link to the Geneva conventions for treatment of the dead.

Photo" Rep. Hunter shakes hands with his father, former Rep. Hunter, at start of Ramona forum.

May 26, 2019 (San Diego) - Rep. Duncan D. Hunter told a Ramona audience Saturday that he’s guilty of the same behavior that led to Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagherbeing charged with war crimes — posing with a dead combatant.

October 18, 2018 (San Diego) – Over $1.4 million in donations have poured into the campaign coffers of Ammar Campa-Najjar from June 30th to September 30th, over five times more than his opponent, Congressman Duncan D. Hunter.

Facing federal felony charges of embezzling a quarter of a million dollars from his campaign for lavish personal expenses including European vacations, overnight stays with mistresses, jewelry, and oral surgery bills. Hunter has tried to blame his wife, blasting his opponent with a racially-based smear campaign touting claims found false by national media fact checkers.

Photo: “CleanUp Carl” inflatable is part of a “Clean the House 2018 tour” funded by the PAC Mayday America to get big money out of politics. This photo was taken at a rally against Rep. Steve Knight. The figure will be in San Diego Monday to protest Rep. Duncan Hunter.

East County News Sevice

rSeptember 23, 2018 (San Diego) -- A 12-foot-high inflatable man in a yellow hazmat suit will join members of Indivisible on Monday at 8:30 a.m. at a rally at Federal Courthouse Plaza (333 W. Broadway, San Diego). to protest Rep. Duncan Hunter’s alleged corruption as he appears again in federal court on felony charges of embezzling $250,000 in campaign cash.

On March 23, 2017, the Committee on Ethics … announced that it was reviewing allegations referred by the Office of Congressional Ethics regarding Rep. Duncan Hunter. The committee also announced that because the Department of Justice had asked the committee to defer its consideration of the matter, the committee had followed precedent and voted unanimously to defer its review at that time.

August 29, 2018 (San Diego) -- After being indicted on 60 counts for wire fraud, campaign finance violation and falsifying records, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) and his wife, Margaret, were summoned last week to appear in front of a federal judge at the Edward J. Schwartz U.S. District Court, San Diego.

August 28, 2018 (San Diego) – In his prior five campaigns for Congress, Duncan D. Hunter waltzed easily to victory over his Democratic opponents with margins of victory ranging from 17% in 2016 to a whopping 42.8% in 2014. But a new poll by Survey USA of likely voters released Monday, days after Hunter’s indictment on federal corruption charges, shows him with a mere 7% lead over Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar.

February 21, 2018 (El Cajon) – If San Diego’s East County politics aren’t complex enough, another chess piece got moved on Tuesday with El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells announcing his intention to run against the troubled 50th District Republican incumbent, Congressman Duncan D. Hunter.

February 14, 2018 (Jamul) — The media has revealed new details on the F.B.I. investigation of an East County lawmaker, as well as his alleged behavior in Washington D.C. According to reports, the investigation is intensifying, as Representative Duncan Hunter’s parents and a female lobbyist have been subpoenaed in the improper spending probe. Fellow Republicans are reportedly worried about his election prospects.

February 5, 2018 (San Diego) -- Congressman Duncan D. Hunter’s dismal campaign finance reports have attracted national attention, and not in a good way. He raised a paltry $50,073 in the last three months of 2017 and spent $264,255, with $178,146 spent with five law firms. At the onset of 2018, the campaign had just $290,904 in the bank, less than half of what it did a year earlier.

After Hunter and Vargas sent letters, a new spill pumped more sewage into Tijuana River Valley at start of Memorial Day weekend

May 31, 2017 (San Diego) — Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) sent a letter May 9th to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and to Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, asking them to take action in the wake of a major sewage spill into the Tijuana River Valley in the U.S. from Mexico earlier this year. Hunter cites concerns not only for environmental and public health, but also negative impacts felt by U.S. Border Patrol agents and Navy Seal teams performing responsibilities in the area daily.